Amp Up Part 1 Four Combo Amps Take the Stage

Unless you play acoustic piano live, your amp is the only part of
your rig your ears hear. Plus, where a guitar or bass amp only has to
make guitar or bass sound good, keyboards amps need to flatter any
sound you dial up. Of course, you also need to hear yourself, and in
smaller venues or ones where the P.A. is puny, project your sound to
the audience as well.

Something is a combo amp if it incorporates speakers, power
amp, multiple inputs, and mixer in one enclosure, and this month,
we’ve gig-tested what we think are the four best going. We haven’t
forgotten that many of you use one or two powered monitor wedges
plus a mixer as your keyboard amp, so we’re rounding up the usual
(and not-so-usual) suspects in that category in next month’s issue (February 2011).